First and foremost, keep in mind everyone's timeline is different when it comes to how you study best to retain information. Even though I took good notes in pharmacy school and hold myself accountable for staying up to date with guidelines, I chose to purchase the full PharmAchieve course (lectures and question banks).
While following the course, I still needed to make my ownplan and tools to hold myself accountable for my learning. I am going to share what I did to study for MCQ and some of the tools I made to help me along the way.
Make A Plan
I started in January, yes extreme, maybe? For me no, based on my rotation schedule and my learning style. January I was testing out what worked for me and what didn't work for me. February-April I was learning and practicing the material, then in May, I picked up the pace with mass review and practice.
My study schedule was based on the PharmAchieve schedule initially. But realistically it did not always work for me to attend live lectures or spend 4 hours one evening with rotations. I would save heavier and/or longer topics for the weekends especially when I was on rotation. Personally, having my inpatient rotation in March/April was the best thing for my studying. I treated Jan/February studying as almost prepping for my rotation so I could apply my knowledge. During rotation, I would move my schedule around if a topic came up that I needed to study for my rotation or if I had a case-based discussion. Let me just say that my inpatient rotation helped me solidify my knowledge of infectious disease topics.
It was essential for me to schedule time for calculations, question banks, and even rest. This way I was able to hold myself to the timeline and ensure I was not just watching lectures but applying my knowledge.
For reference this was my PY4 rotation schedule:
Jan off
Feb online rotation
March/April inpatient rotation
May off
What you're seeing is May when I was doing my 2nd and 3rd reviews in body system chunks and reviewing topics I was more unfamiliar with. If you want to get a full idea of my schedule, I have included my full schedule to download.
Start to Make Your Way Through Topics
If you take away anything from reading this....it is THIS! As I was going through the material I documented the dates I completed and reviewed the lecture, the difficulty, and any important takeaways/notes. If I marked anything as a '4' or '5' in difficulty I would color the cell red. So when it came time for the final stretch and where to direct my focus, I made a new sheet, sorting by the 'red' cells.
Tracking your progress makes sure you do not miss any topics and know your level of comfort with the material. Additionally, if there was a key point to remember, rather than going through all my notes, I could easily go to the sheet and read my notes cell then go from there.
Now, this, this is what I am really proud of and I am glad I thought of doing this early in my studying. It can be really easy to get caught up in the conditions and the algorithms when realistically you have a case and need to be able to pick the best drug based on the interactions, side effects, and contraindications.
I would have this sheet open anytime I was reviewing a lecture or completing a question bank. You can see below for ED (erectile dysfunction) I would list the drug causes, which drugs require dose adjustment (renal AND liver impairment), key interactions (CYP3A4), and any other important notes such as which to avoid with food or which prolong the QT interval.
This sheet was great for final review and honestly, I referred to it during rotations and will continue to use this during my residency.
Test Yourself
Test, test, test yourself. At the end of the week, I would use the PharmAchieve question banks to quiz myself on the material I learned that week. This method worked best for me so I could see how well I retained the material that week versus testing myself right after learning the material. Just like my other 'trackers', I made a question bank tracker to track which quizzes I completed, what the difficulty was, my score, and any comments. The point of the comments column was to allow me to refer back to my notes later that day and during the final review month.
Overall Tips
Be honest with yourself
Ask questions: peers, preceptors, recent grads
Refer to past notes and current guidelines
Take time to know what study method will work best for you
Don't get discouraged: There is a lot of information and this is a stressful time. There will be times when you will doubt yourself but remember how far you have come and all the work you have put in through the years. Do your best and remember to take care of yourself during this time as well!
Common Questions
1. Is PharmAchieve worth it?
Yes...
I have had this discussion with past grads to get both sides. Some chose not to get the course as they had good notes, felt comfortable with the guidelines, and learned best by talking through the material vs. quizzing. Others chose to get the whole course since they liked the comprehensive notes. And others just got the questions bank. It depends on your learning style.
Personally, I got the whole course because I learn best by attending lectures (the person who taught Parkinson's taught it wayyy better than I could have ever learned in school). The course is also up to date on the guidelines and directs you to any changes in the algorithms. I have also heard that some do not think the question bank is an accurate representation of the exam. Honestly, I disagree. I thought the questions were very similar in structure, so much so that when I was doing the exam I even thought I had seen the questions before. Don't get me wrong they are hard and ask for little details but this trains you well to pick between the two best options on the exam when it comes to a specific patient or if first-line options fail.
2. Do I need to read the CTC cover to cover?
No...
I would definitely not just sit there and read the CTC with no plan. Personally, I had my CTC open to the section during the lecture to review the drug tables or if I wanted more information than the lecture provided.
Keep in mind that some topics in the CTC may not be up to date like heart failure and atrial fibrillation. Additionally, CTC is expert opinion and does not necessarily reflect the guidelines.
3. Should I spend time on calculations and PK?
YES! and no...
Calculations yes! PK I would not worry about it.
Start calculations early! I made sure to schedule time each week and then daily in the last month to practice. Even if the problems are frustrating, talk it out, watch YouTube, refer to old notes, or ask a friend. Make sure you can do them in under a minute or so to best mimic the exam setting. Just a warning that the calculator is crap on the actual exam so practice with a very basic calculator like the one on your computer, not a handheld calculator. Hopefully, they will change this one day.
PK questions can be all over the place and it is not worth your time to panic over knowing the difficult questions. I did practice a few using the formulation sheet because if they came up they are simple to do quickly. There is always a possibility of getting PK concepts so I would know your basic definitions and concepts.
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